Air India ups the ante on Indigo with a new potshot

एयरइंडिया ने ऐड के जरिए ग्राहकों को लुभाने की कोशिश की है...The exchange of barbs between Air India and IndiGo through hoardings at Mumbai airport escalated over the weekend, with the national carrier putting up a fresh advertisement and one of its employee unions threatening action if the low-fare carrier didn’t pull down its hoarding.

On Sunday, Air India put up a fresh hoarding that said: "How do some of our friends react when their passengers discover that we offer more leg space, hot meals and more luggage allowance?...With INDIGnation!"

Also, one of Air India's employee unions said it would take "appropriate action" if an IndiGo glow-sign targeting the state-owned airline wasn't taken down.

"The recent unethical/slanderous advertisement campaign indulged into by "IndiGo Airlines" in Mumbai airport has hurt the sentiments and feelings of the employees of the national carrier," Vivek Rao, regional secretary of the Air Corporations Employees Union, wrote to Naresh Gowda, a manager at Terminal 1B, which houses low-fare carriers including IndiGo. Indian full-service carriers and foreign airlines operate out of the new Terminal 2.

Last Sunday, Air India put up a hoarding behind IndiGo's counter at Mumbai airport with the message: "Wish you a comfortable flight. Next time, fly with Air India and feel the difference."

IndiGo responded by putting up a standee that said: "Yes Air India, there is a difference. Says the Government." Below the line was a chart that showed IndiGo ranked first for on-time performance and last for passenger complaints, with the reverse true for Air India. The chart was based on figures published by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the regulator. Later, IndiGo replaced the standee with a full hoarding with a glow-sign.

"The issue is really with the placing of such an advertisement behind our check-in counters," said IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh.

"Their hoarding is targeting our customers directly since it was placed right behind our counters in a terminal building they don't even use. Some of our customers were upset at the advert by Air India and some were getting confused that this was the Air India counter," he said.

"We didn't react for four days, thinking may be their advertising agency didn't think it through properly. Their advert talked about ‘the difference’ and we just wanted to point out the differences that matter to our customers,” he added.

In his letter, Rao of the Air India union said Mumbai airport couldn't absolve itself of its responsibilities and its duty was to ensure that "no airline uses defamatory and slanderous advertisement campaign against any airline."

A spokesperson at Mumbai airport said the allocation of advertising space is outsourced to an agency and issues should be sorted out between the airlines and the agency.